Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell says the club is expecting a "reasonable outcome" in the wake of defender Conor McKenna's positive COVID-19 test.
McKenna, 24, was tested on Friday afternoon as part of the club's and AFL's COVID-19 protocols, returning a low-grade irregularity.
He was tested again on Saturday morning and returned a positive result, forcing the AFL to postpone Essendon's round three game against Melbourne.
Campbell said the Bombers had since provided an "enormous amount of detail and data" to the Department of Health and Human Services and the AFL, with the club expected to hear on Tuesday about which other players are also affected and therefore required to self-isolate for 14 days.
The AFL has so far indicated that Essendon will have to face Carlton on Saturday night if it has 22 players, plus four emergencies, available to play.
"I'd expect common sense would (prevail)," Campbell told Triple M on Monday morning.
"When I say common sense, when the League worked through this – and they've done a tremendous job – they created flexibility in the fixture to allow for this exact situation, where we can stretch out the season, where we could have potential breaks.
"We may have to have breaks based on existing state border closures and things like that, anyway, so I would like to think we would sit down with the AFL and others … so we can work through it for a reasonable outcome."
Campbell said the preference was still to play against Carlton if the impact on the Bombers' playing group was minimal.
"I would love for that to happen, we would love for that to happen, because this game is very important in the context of where we're all at right now," he said.
"I think an element of normality is a nice thing for everyone to see, particularly the Essendon fans and players and everything else like that.
"But you'd like to think we sit down and look at it with an element of common sense and fairness."
All Essendon players and staff registered with the AFL for training and game purposes will be tested again today.
- With AFL.com.au
